Okimoto

Wow, that's a project! Did you put anything in the walls for future generations to find? Like old beer bottles and candy wrappers? Maybe a picture of your Z? How about VCT? That stands up to a good amount of wear and tear. Or quarry tile?

I just remembered something! I just remembered I have a suitcase sized lincoln wirefeed module... that might somehow hook onto the arc welder. it has a giant spool of wire inside. Has anyone ever heard of doing such a thing? Ok, I just uploaded the photographs. All pictures are in my gallery. I have a few more of the rust in the trunk and a few others that I didn't bother to upload. http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?ppuser=8116&cat=500 This is me under the car looking at the damaged area. It's obscured by the brake line in this picture. However, you can see the general condition of the frame rail. with this picture, you can see the crack running parallel to the brake hardline. You can also see the welding done on the other component. the compression bracket should probably be re-welded to the frame rail. Here we have a picture of the frame rail to unibody, I believe. I'm guessing the shop that did it before didn't bother to re-route the hardline thru the new grommet. Picture from the top. You can see the frame rail that seems to bulge at this point... From these pictures in my gallery, I kindly and humbly ask for your honest opinions. Thank you for your time and I hope to be hearing from you soon.

Hello, did a few searches on the frame rail damage and found this thread. I have my car on jackstands now... and I believe my frame is damaged in quite the same way as drax's is. Basically, at one time before I got my 240z, the car was in an accident bad enough to rip the compression bracket off the frame, as well as crack the frame behind the front crossmember. Last week, I found a growing crack in an area above the somewhat damaged looking original old weld on the frame, appearing to be at least an inch and growing. I'm thinking about using some welding rods and repairing it myself. I welded only once before, and that was at the hybridz meet at a shop in La Habra, with pizza. My grandfather left me a 100 amp stick welder and some random rods. He was a welder for a living, but I didn't bother asking him when he was alive like I should have. How would I go about testing the quality of my welds after I try welding the frame back together? This will be my first real weld job. (I welded a steel secuity door but it broke a few days later so I'm concerned about the weld being strong) I'm thinking if I weld this... then release the jack suddenly as to drop the car on a brick of some sort, I will be able to test the strength of the weld as if in real life conditions. I heard that using old rods can be a bad thing, so I'm going to go to the hardware store and find some rods for steel there. any tips will be appreciated.

Well, you might have to say goodbye to the fastest hybrid z you've owned... but you can say hello to one of the more famous hybrid z you could own: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/88300862.html I thought they wrecked it in the movie though... but it could be just me.

I remember when me and another user here, BANG were kids, we used to have these old motherboards... XT motherboards, they were called. One day, I brought a torch over to bang's place and we had fun removing integrated circuits from the motherboard... and in a hurry! If the backside werent so burned, we could use those boards as clipboards. We did it outside, and it smelled like burning brakes after we were done. It was kinda fun watching them melt to oblivion. Back then, I wasn't all too great at building computers safely... and mine caught on fire. I learned that the computer chassis served as a ground to both the primary and secondary on the power supply! After that, I stopped using scotch tape and started to use electrical tape. come on, I was just a kid! But then again, old habits die hard. I better fix the Z

LOL i was about to ask if it would fit in my car. Wouldn't an open cooling system such as a garden hose get messy? Or is it the other way around? I thought that engines ran better when they were warmed up, and that's why I should put a thermostat in my z car. [edfit] nevermind, I just thought about it and realized... even if you do that, you can have a thermostat in there... but then it would get hot and cold on a constant basis? is that bad? What about just blocking off the heater and accessorie hoses? How about using a giant ball valve to regulate flow? you can water your garden or fill the tub with hot water for a nice bath with the heat generated from the engine! Or is it all just boggleswotch? I remember seeing an engine stand in my friend's HS shop class... it was complete with a radiator and a 318... gauges and all! I gotta admit, it's a pretty good educational experience though! Your welding job actually looks really nice! If I could weld like that, I'd put a sbc in my vehicular transportation device!

If you build it out of stainless steel, you won't have that little problem with the rust... Plus, It'll look nice too. Also, since my z car doesn't have matching locks, I only have one key, and that's for the drivers door. I think the best bet would be to dig up the ground, lay drain tile down and away from there, slope the soil away from the garage, lay some gravel down, and put down a slab on grade style fdn... but if the water table is as high as it is, and your frost line is lower than the water table, then I don't really know what you should do to avoid frost heave? I also remembered that I DID have the keys to the rest of my z car, but i lost them. Stupid me, huh. How about a test bore before trying anything out? It would be cheaper than making a mistake, no?

First off, I don't think having a rat living in my vehicle is very technical, so that's why I chose to put it in the non-tech forums. When I got the z car, I had to rewire it because a rat ate thru the harness at several points. Behind the dash, near the hatch, you name it. While pulling out the old harness, I discovered a rat's nest behind the seats where the storage compartments would be in the 72+ cars. I used a wire hanger and pulled as much as I could out. I discovered more nesting underneath the door sill when I was pulling the wiring thru there. The vinyl on the rear shock tower was eaten off also, in a rat sized pattern. I pulled the wire and soldered everything in place and since I didn't see a rat, I figured it was gone. I pound the panels back in place and drive the car for about 2 months. Earlier this week, I was doing something behind the seats and found a rat sized hole where I put one of the panels back in. It appears that the rat is back, or never left. I'd like to get rid of it before it decides to chew on the new wiring, I hope it hasn't already. My friend suggested rolling down the windows and letting the exhaust fumes take care of the rat. Okay, so the rat will die, but I'll be long gone! I thought about raid, but using raid would leave a dead rat somewhere in the body, and dead rats dont smell good. I could try putting my cat in the car, but she's scared of anything bigger than a roach. I could leave some food out so the rat can live, or get a rat trap, but what if the rat trap injures the rat and it crawls back into the body and dies? Maybe I can out-live the rat, but by then my wiring would be gone again. Actually, I gotta be honest... I Don't know if its really a rat, or a mouse. But a rat sounds so much cooler so I'll stick with saying its a rat. <img src="http://www.thecrayonbox.org/mike/rat1.JPG"> <img src="http://www.thecrayonbox.org/mike/rat2.JPG">